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Snapshots	Past stories Avalon Peninsula Cape Breton Islands Cypress Hills Northern Ontario Okanagan Valley

Regional Map

Contents: Location Geology First Nations European Contact Flora and Fauna Agriculture Tourism and Leisure Cities Contacts

While searching for an accessible route to transport furs to the Pacific, Europeans began exploring the B.C. Interior. In 1811 Scottish trader and explorer David Stuart of the Pacific Fur Company sailed to the junction of the Columbia and Okanagan rivers and built Fort Okanagan. He then travelled north to Thompson River and in so doing, established the Okanagan Valley trail that united the Upper Fraser and Lower Columbia sections. By 1824 the trail was dominated by the activities of the Hudson's Bay Company which provided fur caravans along the lake hills until 1847. Between orchards and vineyards remnants of the trail remain for historical hikes.

The first permanent valley settlements were established in 1840 by Father Charles Pandosy of the Oblates of Mary. Missionary camps were located at the head of Okanagan Lake and near what is now Kelowna. The valley population grew with the discovery of gold on the Fraser River in 1858 and in the Cariboo region in 1861. Both the Cariboo Road (now Hwy 97) and the Dewdney Trail (now Hwy 3) were built as a result. This opening up of the B.C. Interior attracted 150 Overlanders from Ontario in 1862, and continued growth came with the establishment of Canadian Pacific Railway services by the 1890s.